- Feb 25, 2010
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The LG Ally is now my day to day phone (mini-review)
So as the title suggests, it is official I have finally retired the one device I take everywhere (the LG enV Touch) and replaced it with the LG Ally.
A lot of people who know me are surprised that my day to day device (the one device I take everywhere and use as my actual talking/texting phone) is not a smartphone (given my collection).
We that's has been the case for several reasons:
* I need a phone that is small enough to actually talk on. BlackBerries, Moto Droid, Droid Incredible, etc) are all to wide for me
* I need a physical keyboard. Yes I know all the arguments back and forth about physical vs touch keys and I will agree that touch keys are getting better and better as time passes, but for me (and a lot of others) the touch screen keyboard just doesn't feel right and my typing speed and accuracy are not as fast as a phone with physical keys. The iPhone, which is arguably the best touch screen keyboard does feel fast, but that benefit is canceled out by the time I spend going back and fixing the assumed word corrections that are NOT correct. The HTC Sense keyboard is getting close and I love how I can select the choice for auto-correct from a list, but it's still not as fast as physical keys.
* I need a keyboard layout that makes sense and is familiar. Virtually every device I have ever used with physical keys has tried to reinvent the wheel there by moving where they symbols, punctuation, and numbers are located, often because they want to have only 3 rows of keys but sometimes for no apparent reason (the Devour is terrible in this respect). BlackBerry has settled on a standardized keyboard layout, and once it you get used to it it's quite usable, but thus far the ideal choice for me has been the keyboard used on most LG messaging phones. Why? They didn't reinvent the wheel. If you are reading this from a computer, look down at your hands. They look at the LG Ally, or any of the enV's. Look familiar? They shroud, because LG was smart and based their keyboard design on the standard qwerty keyboard most of you are using. In addition to the letters and numbers, most of the other characters are in the same or a similar position. This is important because it let's you type without thinking.
* I need a phone with good battery life. I never know when I am going to need to use my phone during the day and witth the exception of BlackBerry every other smartphone I have tried has had less than stellar battery life. The Ally comes with a 1500 mAh battery (once again making us wonder what HTC and Verizon were thinking when they chose a battery for the Incredible) and I have only been using the Ally as my day to day phone for two days and today at the end of the day (with moderate use, and a good amount of time in a low signal environment) my Ally still had 53% battery life (and the battery isn't even broken in yet) by the end of the week it is likely I will get a day and a half to two days out of it like I did my enV Touch.
Well I have finally found a smartphone that suits the bill here, and sadly it does not get much respect in these forums/blogs, it is none ofher than the LG Ally.
Now I am well aware that the device isn't the most powerful processor wise, and does not have as much app memory, etc.
Yes it would be nice if it had more app memory, bit for what I want it for it is sufficient. The processor speed does not bother me (they phone doss not seem to lag at all) and is actually a good thing when it comes to the stellar battery life.
Some other observations:
* The phone feels soooo good in my hand, the size is just perfect
* The keys are great, a little smaller than the enV Touch and Voyager but it's not hard to get used to.
* The 2.1 install on the phone seems pretty vanilla. It has the same home screen as the Nexus One, the same 3d Gallery as the Nexus and Droid, etc. It seems to be the stock browser.
* It's not bogged down with carrier crap ware (even backup assistant had to be downloaded from the market).
* Yes there is a "Sicialite" (kinda like Freindstream or Events in Motoblur) widget but it's not on the screen by default. Most of the other widgest seem to be the stock ones, so really LG was pretty hands off.
* I'm not a fan of the address book app (Contacts) but or the dialer (both of which seem tweaked from the Motodroid) but I have already started using Handcent for my messaging needs and it is only ya mattre of time before I find better dialer and address book apps (they joys of open source!)
* The camera is mediocre. It does have a flash but there is no digital zoom (hopefully they will correct that oversight in an upgrade). You have to unlock the screen before you can call up the camera with the camera button (which is a good and bad thing depending on your POV) and the camera app seems a bit slow (but again we will see what happens with software upgrades)
* I'm using Fancy Widget (free in the market) to have a home screen that looks like it is a Sense phone)
To summarize:
The LG Ally is actually really a nice phone, and deserves more respect than it gets. It feels nice in the hand and gets the job done.
Is is it in the same league as the Droid Incredible or Evo for power users? Not even close. But the form factor and functionality make it just right for someone looking for a messaging phone that runs Android or someone who is looking for their first Android phone, where a physical keyboard and/or battery life are a priority.
So as the title suggests, it is official I have finally retired the one device I take everywhere (the LG enV Touch) and replaced it with the LG Ally.
A lot of people who know me are surprised that my day to day device (the one device I take everywhere and use as my actual talking/texting phone) is not a smartphone (given my collection).
We that's has been the case for several reasons:
* I need a phone that is small enough to actually talk on. BlackBerries, Moto Droid, Droid Incredible, etc) are all to wide for me
* I need a physical keyboard. Yes I know all the arguments back and forth about physical vs touch keys and I will agree that touch keys are getting better and better as time passes, but for me (and a lot of others) the touch screen keyboard just doesn't feel right and my typing speed and accuracy are not as fast as a phone with physical keys. The iPhone, which is arguably the best touch screen keyboard does feel fast, but that benefit is canceled out by the time I spend going back and fixing the assumed word corrections that are NOT correct. The HTC Sense keyboard is getting close and I love how I can select the choice for auto-correct from a list, but it's still not as fast as physical keys.
* I need a keyboard layout that makes sense and is familiar. Virtually every device I have ever used with physical keys has tried to reinvent the wheel there by moving where they symbols, punctuation, and numbers are located, often because they want to have only 3 rows of keys but sometimes for no apparent reason (the Devour is terrible in this respect). BlackBerry has settled on a standardized keyboard layout, and once it you get used to it it's quite usable, but thus far the ideal choice for me has been the keyboard used on most LG messaging phones. Why? They didn't reinvent the wheel. If you are reading this from a computer, look down at your hands. They look at the LG Ally, or any of the enV's. Look familiar? They shroud, because LG was smart and based their keyboard design on the standard qwerty keyboard most of you are using. In addition to the letters and numbers, most of the other characters are in the same or a similar position. This is important because it let's you type without thinking.
* I need a phone with good battery life. I never know when I am going to need to use my phone during the day and witth the exception of BlackBerry every other smartphone I have tried has had less than stellar battery life. The Ally comes with a 1500 mAh battery (once again making us wonder what HTC and Verizon were thinking when they chose a battery for the Incredible) and I have only been using the Ally as my day to day phone for two days and today at the end of the day (with moderate use, and a good amount of time in a low signal environment) my Ally still had 53% battery life (and the battery isn't even broken in yet) by the end of the week it is likely I will get a day and a half to two days out of it like I did my enV Touch.
Well I have finally found a smartphone that suits the bill here, and sadly it does not get much respect in these forums/blogs, it is none ofher than the LG Ally.
Now I am well aware that the device isn't the most powerful processor wise, and does not have as much app memory, etc.
Yes it would be nice if it had more app memory, bit for what I want it for it is sufficient. The processor speed does not bother me (they phone doss not seem to lag at all) and is actually a good thing when it comes to the stellar battery life.
Some other observations:
* The phone feels soooo good in my hand, the size is just perfect
* The keys are great, a little smaller than the enV Touch and Voyager but it's not hard to get used to.
* The 2.1 install on the phone seems pretty vanilla. It has the same home screen as the Nexus One, the same 3d Gallery as the Nexus and Droid, etc. It seems to be the stock browser.
* It's not bogged down with carrier crap ware (even backup assistant had to be downloaded from the market).
* Yes there is a "Sicialite" (kinda like Freindstream or Events in Motoblur) widget but it's not on the screen by default. Most of the other widgest seem to be the stock ones, so really LG was pretty hands off.
* I'm not a fan of the address book app (Contacts) but or the dialer (both of which seem tweaked from the Motodroid) but I have already started using Handcent for my messaging needs and it is only ya mattre of time before I find better dialer and address book apps (they joys of open source!)
* The camera is mediocre. It does have a flash but there is no digital zoom (hopefully they will correct that oversight in an upgrade). You have to unlock the screen before you can call up the camera with the camera button (which is a good and bad thing depending on your POV) and the camera app seems a bit slow (but again we will see what happens with software upgrades)
* I'm using Fancy Widget (free in the market) to have a home screen that looks like it is a Sense phone)
To summarize:
The LG Ally is actually really a nice phone, and deserves more respect than it gets. It feels nice in the hand and gets the job done.
Is is it in the same league as the Droid Incredible or Evo for power users? Not even close. But the form factor and functionality make it just right for someone looking for a messaging phone that runs Android or someone who is looking for their first Android phone, where a physical keyboard and/or battery life are a priority.
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) but I prefer the heavier build feel of the Moto so I want to see how the Droid2 turns out.
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